Train Derailment Injures Dozens

Service Disruption on Busy Commuter Corridor Could Last Days

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Emergency workers arrive at the scene of a train collision in Fairfield, Conn. on Friday.
AP

By

Ted Mann and

Alison Fox

Updated May 18, 2013 10:40 a.m. ET

A commuter train heading east from New York City derailed and collided with another train in Fairfield, Conn., during the busy Friday evening rush hour, injuring 60 people, including five that state officials said are in critical condition.

The accident of the Metro-North trains shut down much of Connecticut's commuter-rail service Friday evening. A spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the New York-area agency that runs Metro-North, said there was major damage to tracks and that rail service on the busy commuter corridor could be affected for days.

Amtrak offered limited service Saturday morning between Boston and New Haven, and regular service south from New York toward Washington. But train service through western Connecticut remained indefinitely suspended, and the railroad offered no timetable for its resumption.

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The Fairfield police reported no fatalities in the accident.
Jason Brown

The eastbound train, headed to New Haven from Grand Central Terminal, derailed at about 6:10 p.m. Friday just east of the Fairfield Metro station, and hit a westbound train on the opposite track, Metro-North spokeswoman Marjorie Anders said, knocking several cars of that train off the rails. Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy, briefing reporters Friday night in Bridgeport, just to the east, said the accident caused "pretty big damage" that would take time to repair.

He added that officials from the National Transportation Safety Board would be handling the investigation of how the accident happened. "We have no reason to believe it's anything but an accident, but obviously that's something that has to be looked at," Mr. Malloy said.

Jason Brown, a 37-year-old New York City resident, was on the train heading for New Haven when he saw the cars in front of him start to curve.

"I could see part of the train in front of me curving," he said. "I thought, 'that's not right.' My first thought was to stand up and brace myself."

He said the car then lifted in the air and he was thrown upwards before it stopped. He said no one was seriously injured in his car, but he said he saw injured passengers outside after a fellow rider broke the glass on the door, allowing passengers to get out.

He added that he noticed that nearby tracks were "warped" with pieces of wood sticking up.

The derailment was the most serious crash of its type for Metro-North in many years. In 1988, two trains collided in the Bronx after an engineer apparently ran through a red stop signal.

This past December, a Metro-North train struck a car at a grade crossing in Redding, Conn., killing two of the occupants.

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